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Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Armchair Genealogy

What are the Ethics of Genealogical Research?

Genealogical research, as is my oft-repeated refrain, is a
rewarding avocation if not a full-time vocation. Through the decades as
your author has meandered through online records, personal family
documents, Family Bibles, books dedicated to preserving the memory of
one or another of our ancestors, photographs both owned and loaned and
discovered, it has come to my attention that not everyone follows the
same set of “rules” as pertain to the ethical usage of materials in
one’s own tree. So just what are the ethics surrounding use of
materials generated by others? Obviously, one cannot have existed
through all the lifetimes of all the characters that inhabit our family
tree. It would be impossible to create a tree from the limited viewpoint
of one individual person’s contact with their inner circle of relatives
– no matter how large the family might have been! Thus, we all build
upon that vast pool of knowledge that has been made available to us
through the endeavors of those who went before us and from those whose
paths of research trod those same footsteps as our own ancestors’.

For purposes of properly crediting the work of those
who have laboriously gathered the names, dates, and stories and then
taken the time to put that information into a permanent record, we
should always make sure we reference the historian’s name and refer to
whatever title they used to preserve those memories and document those
facts. This step is not only a common courtesy (often, actually, one
necessitated by law), but also a valuable step to make sure we always
know where that tidbit of information arose. Who gave me that
photograph? What did they have to say about how they gained possession
of it? What was written on the back or the margin of the photo itself?
Was it enclosed in a letter and, if so, the perennial W’s of any good
reporter’s arsenal come into play: Who, What, When, Where and Why?

My family tree is maintained on Ancestry.com, a
wonderful site that furnishes access to millions and millions of
original documents. It links to other family trees where the name and
dates of birth, etc. appear to match. You can review page after page of
handwritten Census records from 1790 to the most recent one made
publicly available (always a lag of 70 years to ensure no living
person’s personal information is made public without consent). You can
read stories posted by others about common relatives and link that story
to your own tree. But, here is where ethical questions frequently
arise. It is always upsetting to find your own researched story or
compilation of facts – facts you spent hours digging through libraries,
or online sites, or books, or reviewing interviews with relatives to dig
up and put together in a cohesive and meaningful fashion – offered up
as a NEW story – WITH SOMEONE ELSE’S NAME ON IT!! Wow! What an affront!
How dare they? But, this happens to me frequently as the duration of my
research and numbers of stories shared publicly on my tree proliferate.
There is a little quirk on Ancestry that posts your own name to stories
that you find and Save to your own tree. It behooves us to take the
extra time to make sure the person who originally shared that story is
given full credit.

And, this brings up another question of ethics. A
number of years ago, I was merrily saving photographs made available
publicly through Ancestry to my tree. I was absolutely delighted to be
able to put a face to the name! And, then…I got a message from a
cousin. This cousin was one who had not been introduced to me and whose
name was unknown to me. Our relationship would have been quite a mystery
had not it been clear she “owned” some of “my” relatives! Now, this
gal really was angry with me for saving three or four of the photos she
had saved to her Public Tree. She demanded to know HOW I was related to
HER ancestor. And, when I offered my lineage, she questioned it. (I had
to smile recently after my DNA was posted at the site and she showed up
as a close cousin.) Every one of these photographs, of course, post to
my tree with a notation by Ancestry that it was originally shared by …
And shows any number of other folks who had also seen the pic and
decided to save it to their own tree. She thought I should have
messaged her privately and asked permission to use the pics. Here, I
differ. Had she provided them to me via email or snail mail or by hand,
I certainly would have asked permission to then post them to Ancestry.
But, with those pictures attached to a tree not made Private by the
site’s own rules, those pictures were fair game. At other times, I have
received messages from other researchers who either saved some of my
shared pics or who noticed I had saved theirs. We made one another’s
acquaintance, shared a bit of our own background, exchanged information
and helped one another research. No issues – nice contact – pleasant
all around.

If, of course, the tree has been made Private at
Ancestry, you will see that a photo has been saved to a particular
person’s profile but will be given a notice to contact the owner of that
tree to request access, or to see the picture, and permission to use.
Protocol established by the site being the rule here.

These common courtesies are, perhaps, rather obvious.
But, another question of ethics arises in the neat application that
permits users to Message one another. This is a nifty little tool. I
have mine set up where I get an email message notifying me someone has
sent me a Message on Ancestry. The ethical question arises in how one
responds to these messages. My personal attitude is that I “do unto
others as I would have them do unto me.” In other words, I take the time
to really read their message and then refer to my own research to try
to respond with a truthful and accurate bit of information. This leads
to a lot of distractions, of course. But, it also may provide that one
clue to your own brick wall that has been eluding you for so long. I am
always drawn into the mystery that others share with me. I may not be
timely in my responses; however, and that is the ethical question I must
address to myself. Am I overly rude in not immediately sending SOME
kind of response – even if it is only to say the answer must await
another day?

Novice researchers will blunder through, as I did and
as I’m sure others did, without even considering documenting their
source in their eagerness to build their tree and discover their
ancestors. Your author had to go back after initial efforts and take the
time to locate the source document and make sure a citation was
attached to the facts arising therefrom. The observance of ethical
interaction brings at least two benefits: it preserves for the historian
the source material for each fact AND it may well pave the way for a
mutually beneficial ongoing, long-time interaction with others who have
common ancestors and, therefore, common research goals.

Family HistoryLibrary, Salt Lake City, Utah

A photograph of the Family History Library facility in Salt
Lake City, Utah. Inside are volunteers from the Mormon Church who
dedicate their time to assisting visitors. There are computers, books
containing materials related to family histories which have been donated
to the Library, and file folders containing genealogical research
housed within the library as well. Many computers are made available to
researchers, in addition to photocopiers and microfiche machines. This
facility hosts thousands of visitors annually and provides access,
online, to the troves of family history research materials.

With these issues in mind, please do undertake your
research as you would any friendly interaction – with common courtesy,
mutual respect, and a willingness to share. That one connection may be
the one to put the chisel to your own personal brick wall.

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